


Broken When We're Together, Nothing When We're Not

by Angelchexmex



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Families of Choice, Grief, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, No Imprinting, No soulmates, PTSD, Pack Dynamics, Romance, Shapeshifter, Vampires, War, Werewolf, highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-08-14 09:01:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16489610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelchexmex/pseuds/Angelchexmex
Summary: Harriet and Hadrian Potter had fought for their lives since the day they were placed on the Dursley's doorstep, and they can only be grateful they've made it so far. But, with the war tearing them down constantly and their friends dying at every corner, it's finally time to admit defeat and start running instead.With the last of their friends and allies, Harriet and Hadrian retreat to Forks, Washington, hoping for a new start and a chance to finally heal. Just their luck that they drop themselves into some kind of feud between a pack of shifters and a coven of vampires both ready to start a war over a human girl. Well they'll just stay out of it, after all it shouldn't be that hard, right?





	1. Flight

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Devil Twins](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2037225) by [Angelchexmex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelchexmex/pseuds/Angelchexmex). 



> This is a re-make of my other fic Devil Twins which I will still keep updating because honestly that's basically a crack version of this, or maybe this is a serious version of that? Either way I like them both. 
> 
> Also this counts as my first posting for NaNoWriMo where I post a chapter a day of something, so look forward to a bunch of old works being revived this month (hopefully this lasts longer than it did last year). Also, just like last year, first person to comment on this fic gets a oneshot of their choosing! If they don't want it, it goes on to the next person and so on until someone takes me up on my offer. (This fic can be from any fandom btw and any pairing(s) wished! All things are a go!)

“Seven,” they whispered, the air snatching the number from their lips and carrying it away. The sounds of the battlefield were far more prominent than anything they could scream at each other and the one word had barely been whispered. It was a terrified confession neither seemed willing to acknowledge but the stress of its meaning weighed on their shoulders greatly.

Voldemort was already dead, his body lost somewhere on the grounds of Hogwarts as the Death Eaters continued to advance. It had been foolish of them to think that with the fall of their leader the Death Eaters would simply give-up, foolish but desperately hoped for. There had been too many casualties of the war already. Harriet had passed by Ron’s broken body before Voldemort had died, the once fierce Gryffindor was painted with blood and dirt much like the other bodies that littered around. She had stopped looking at what she was stepping on a while ago, finding it easier to pretend ignorance than face the truth of the squishing solids her feet were planted on.

Later on she would wonder how exactly he had died, what his last thoughts had been, and if it had hurt as much as it looked like it did. She’d spend days staring at nothing and hearing Ron’s voice in her head. He’d been stronger than anyone had ever thought he’d be, and essential to every plan and strategy, but in the end he’d fallen too. There were so many fallen. There were so many still falling and all Harriet could do was run and fight and hope.

Hadrian hadn’t been so successful, heart wrenching and tearing at every soft piece of flooring his feet came into contact with. His eyes flickered constantly between the battle and the fallen beneath them. Every face was burned into his memory and every pair of dead eyes seemed to accuse him directly. This was all his fault after all. 

He was on of the Chosen Ones, he was supposed to protect everyone here and how well had he done that? He and his sister should have been able to end this before it had even began, but in the end they had assisted Voldemort’s rise to power instead. Without them the Dark Lord wouldn’t have regained his proper body, at least not so soon. 

How like Hadrian to make everything worse. The Dursleys had always warned him of this, of a world of terror and pain with him at the center. It was funny, almost, and some dark part of Hadrian, the part of him that had the Avada Kedavra curse spilling from his wand easier than an expelliarmus, found a cruel sort of amusement in it. Wouldn’t they have been so pleased to know they’d been right about what kind of monster Hadrian had been, if only they were alive to know.

Such thoughts were punched from Hadrian’s mind as he briefly clutched at his stomach. “Six,” he felt like retching: they had been at thirty before Fleur and Bill’s wedding. Hadrian’s eyes skated over to his sister who was pushing herself up from the ground, her clothing covered in mud and other fluids he didn’t want to think about. She’d been guiding him through the chaos as his thoughts swirled and tumbled and churned. 

She reached her hand out for his and he closed the distance between them so that he could take it again. “We’re running late,” she warned. Hadrian gave no word of acknowledgement but picked up speed in their race towards the Forbidden Forest. There wasn’t much else they could do here, for all that the battle was still raging it was obvious who would win. Molly had taken down Bellatrix before falling under the wands of the Lestrange brothers and there seemed to be no third in command for the Death Eaters. Both Lucius and Severus were, hopefully, already at the meeting spot they had prearranged. The twins hadn’t planned on making it there, hadn’t planned on surviving this long, after all the fall from thirty to six had been a harsh one. They never could have predicted they’d be this close and now they wanted it, they wanted to survive. 

A scream drew Hadrian’s attention but Harriet yanked on his arm, forcing him to move forwards again. They couldn’t afford to try and help the others, they could barely help themselves. “Don’t look back. Don’t stop running.” Harriet ordered and Hadrian hated himself for obeying but he couldn’t do anything else. 

Reaching the treeline felt like a kind of bitter success. They breathed in tandem, choking, wheezing breaths that heralded physical collapse. The battle had been going on for over twenty-four hours and before that they had been on the run for months; neither were in the best physical condition but all they needed was to reach the meeting point. 

“Harry!” The Potter twins drew to a trembling halt at the familiar call of their name. Narcissa Malfoy waved at them calmly from beside a tree just a bit behind them, they’d almost missed the meeting spot. “The only person we’re still waiting for is Cedric.” She informed them. She looked a bit worse for wear. Her clothing torn and obvious bruising darkening her face, but she’d gotten off much better than many others. “Fred is severely injured and Remus no longer has use of his right leg. They are the only two major injuries. More of us are dead than alive.” Her short, clipped sentence were the only sign she gave of her distress.

They had expected this, Hadrian reminded himself. People died in war and people had already died for this war. Knowing anyone at all was alive was its own kind of miracle, and they couldn’t afford to think of anything else. They may be hidden in the Forbidden Forest for now, but there was no telling if someone would stumble upon them. Their safety was a temporary one at best.

Fred was barely breathing, his body partially crushed and his face torn to shreds. Hadrian felt his breathing hitch before he could help himself, Harriet’s hand tightening around his. Merlin but they had already lost so many, how could they lose more? George’s expression was terrifyingly neutral as he worked on his brother, Narcissa aiding where she could and deliberately not acknowledging where her skills were useless. 

Remus was being subjected to Severus’ not so tender mercies as he used what potions he had left on him to heal what he could, Lucius doing his best to stop the bleeding from what medi-wizardry he’d learned from his wife. The leg would be almost completely useless if it retained any use at all, Harriet noted, but she was far less upset than her brother. War meant death and she was far too focused on keeping what remained alive than worrying about those already gone. Remus would live and that was all that mattered and Fred, well Fred wasn’t gone yet and that meant there was hope. 

“Move aside,” Neville ordered, the sword of Gryffindor dripping blood and other fluids in his hands. He looked exhausted, but determination burned in his eyes as he knelt next to Fred, George moving away but still hovering. 

“It’ll be okay,” Harriet whipped around, wand up and pointing at Ginny before she realised who was talking and that Ginny wasn’t even talking to her. 

Hadrian, who Harriet had begun to ignore in her quest to note who was and was not there, had begun shaking, already sunken to the ground with tears rolling down his cheeks. “We made it, we made it,” Ginny whispered to him gently, her soothing words just seeming to break something further in Hadrian. 

Harriet turned away, unable to look at her brother without something dark churning in her chest. Maybe resentment for his ability to cry, maybe disgust at his weakness, maybe jealousy at his emotionality, or maybe just despair at how their situation was turning out. Part of her had hoped, worse part of her had truly believed, that Voldemort would die and everything would end. The Death Eaters would give up and that would be that, but what a foolish dream that had been. What a foolish hope. 

Harriet hardened herself again, it seemed like that’s all she did these days, and turned to find someone not preoccupied. Luna and Tonks stood off to the side of everyone else, both at opposite points of the group with their wands up, ready to defend at a moments notice, Mad-Eye was listing slightly to the left but had his wand at the ready too. He would be the best to talk to, he was the one most used to these types of situations after all.

“Moody, report,” Harriet ordered, hoping he would give her more than Narcissa had. They were waiting for Cedric yes, but Harriet didn’t see Percy or Blaise or Arthur or Amelia or even Mundungus Fletcher standing around. 

“What you see is what you get,” Moody replied, “unless you know what happened to Hermione or Cedric? Everyone else is either as good as dead or here. Only injuries are what you see and only Fred’s really in danger.”

“Hermione’s gone,” Harriet replied, she hadn’t seen it herself but Hadrian had and that was almost the same thing. She’d been missing an arm and been split open from navel to throat, eyes wide and unblinking and face ashen under the blood and gore. Hadrian hadn’t even known what he was looking at for a moment when he’d stumbled upon her, but the second it did register the only thing that stopped his screams was the sheer horror.

“Then all we’ve got left is Cedric. The Death Eaters will be thinned from this, I’m thinking Hogwarts will win the day today.” Moody offered as some kind of comfort.

“But what about tomorrow,” Harriet replied, eyes scanning the trees automatically. She could still feel her heart beating in her chest, terrified and ready to fight. “The Wizarding World won’t fix itself overnight, and I’m not going to be around to fix it. This isn’t my world, my life. We’ve done enough, they can right themselves on their own with whoever is left.” Like Kingsley who refused to leave or Cho Chang who had too much in the Wizarding World to abandon it, or even Hannah Abbott who was too kind to leave anyone behind. 

Moody grunted, his own dissatisfaction with running away clear on his face. Harriet turned away, walking towards the least protected side they had and brought her wand up. They were doing the right thing, the only thing they could do. Leaving wasn’t a bad decision, it wasn’t.

“It isn’t,” Hadrian agreed, coming up to stand beside his sister, Ginny just behind him. 

“We’ll live a good life,” Ginny added, “a better life than any of us could have here.” 

“And if Hogwarts does fall tonight? If the Death Eaters win and continue their take over? If it passes outside of England?” Harriet questioned, still facing outwards and towards the forest around them. She almost could have sworn she saw something rustle further out. 

“Then we regroup, strengthen ourselves, and return. We only come back if we have to.” It was what they’d all agreed to and Ginny seemed almost frustrated to have to be saying it again even though her eyes were understanding, too understanding for Harriet’s comfort.

Before she could respond, the movement she had definitely noticed before came closer and all three of them got ready to fight, before Cedric’s vaguely panicked face appeared from the bushes. They relaxed, wands still at the ready but less tense. 

“Go grab Lucius,” Harriet ordered and Hadrian nodded, slipping away quickly as Ginny slipped closer to Harriet, wrapping an arm around the shorter girl’s waist. It was hard to tell if it was for comfort or to help Ginny stand. 

Cedric looked like he’d been rolling through the mud, filth sticking to him and leaves latching on to the oddest places. Most of it was probably deliberate, Cedric had never been good at such large scale battles and fighting against multiple opponents. He was, however, their best sneak attack. He blended in with the background well and took out his opponents before they even realised an enemy was nearby. He’d stayed to the edge of the battle, picking off those he could and hunkering down to send out helpful little spells when he couldn’t. Harriet could recall at least twice when a Death Eater had tripped at an inopportune time, giving her just enough of an edge to win.

Lucius ran over, all dignity forgotten as he embraced his lover, both of them checking each other over for wounds as Cedric babbled something about a rogue hippogriff. Which, was also unfortunately in line with his character. Something about Cedric led to animals despising him, even Crookshanks has taken his fair amount of swings at Cedric. Then again that cat could be savage when it wanted to be. 

“You could at least pretend like it affects you,” Hadrian stated, hands clenched at his sides as he stared at his sister’s blank face. 

“And you could at least hold off on crying until we’re actually safe,” Harriet replied without inflection. Hadrian wanted to scream at her, wanted to see her hurt like he hurt, but he knew that was wrong. All of this was wrong. 

It had been a long time since he’d genuinely wanted to hurt his sister, even longer since they’d both actually broken each other open, and Hadrian had honestly thought they’d moved past the dangerous, destructive relationship they’d had when they first came to Hogwarts. But right at that moment, Hadrian would have done almost anything to force an emotion out of Harriet, any emotion. 

 

Harriet, in turn, wanted to force her brother into silence, wanted to cut him apart and put him back together better, stronger. They’d handle it later though, now was neither the time nor place. “Freak,” Hadrian snapped, turning away and deliberately not looking at Ginny, who was hopefully the only person that had heard their little tiff. 

“Takes one to know one,” followed behind Hadrian like a childish taunt, but it meant so much more than that. Freaks, that’s what they both were: jagged edges digging into each other at every turn but unable to separate, and unwilling to try. 

“Is he going to be alright if we portkey him?” Hadrian questioned, crouching beside Fred who was breathing better now but would be invariably scarred for life. He needed to get them out of their, and then he and Harriet could settle their emotions. They’d tear into each other for hours later. For now, he actually had something to do.

“He’s as good as he’s going to get,” Narcissa agreed, shoulders hunched over but voice undefeated. George didn’t say anything, just gathered his brother into his arms and nodded once.  
Hadrian stood and raised his voice to reach everyone, “We’re as many as we will be, it’s time to go.” 

Shuffling followed, everyone making their way towards Luna who held the portkey: a long length of rope she’d wrapped around her waist beneath her clothing. They’d all figured she was the one most likely to survive, because if nothing else she knew how to escape, and in a battle like this, that was the most important thing to do. 

Hadian gripped the rope, surprised at how clean it still was despite everything it had gone through. Luna did look the least like she’d been in battle though, even her hair bun was still in place if a bit ruffled. For a second McGonagall's face flashed before his eyes, bun askew and head rolling away from her body. Hadrian felt sick. 

The image was torn away by Mad-Eye Moody’s shout of warning, everyone turning almost as one as Death Eaters burst into the clearing. Even with the warning it wasn’t really enough, and Moody fell to the first round of spells, body falling in a bloody, mangled heap under at least four curses all tearing at him at once. Hadrian’s throat ached and his eyes stung with the need to cry, but he focused on the present. 

“Everyone grab the rope!” Harriet screamed, having ducked under it to stand beside her brother at the front of the defense, shield charms flying from her wand at a pace Hadrian had to fight to keep up with. Eventually though, they moved as one and Harry’s spells gained power. They bought enough time for everyone to gather themselves and grab onto the rope, until they were the only one not holding on. 

A few last charms, and Harry turned, grabbing onto the rope with one hand but body still turned back towards the Death Eaters. They saw the shields fall as Luna activated the Portkey. They knew it wouldn’t be quick enough. They saw the spells coming towards them. They knew the Avada Kedavras would have to hit someone. As one, they panicked. 

Harry shoved Severus and Tonks down as hard as their combined strength made possible, desperate to save two of their family members. They had lost too many people today and refused to lose anymore. The bright green light of the Avada Kedavra exploded in the small clearing as the portkey took them all away, the only sound left behind was a whispered “Five,” breathed into the air like a broken prayer.


	2. Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hadrian and Harriet have arrived in safety, except safety comes with its own issues. Can a family built during war and from desperation last in peace? The twins are feeling adrift and really there's only one thing to do about that, fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone upset by lack of Twilight characters, the Cullens will come in next chapter and the Quileutes will make a surprise appearance. 
> 
> Read and Review please! This is the second story where I'm actually dropping hints about important things for later on, can anyone of you catch them?
> 
> Also, next chapter is called Fright, so look forward to that!

“So I’ll switch out with you during lunch and take your physics class while you handle my art,” Hadrian stated, making a note in his hand-sized planner.

“If we switch for the first time at lunch then you’ll have to live through history and English,” Harriet replied, pointing at the specified blocks on their printed out schedule. It was something they’d been trying to figure out for a day or two and were now only arguing over the Monday/Wednesday schedule. 

“I can’t suddenly do worse on those days,” Hadrian agreed reluctantly, scanning his and then Harriet’s schedules and trying to find a better place for them to switch out. 

“What about after maths?” He asked, tapping Harriet’s schedule to show her that she had a free period while Hadrian would be in maths. “You can be waiting for me and we can pull a quick switch here and then I’ll take your Spanish class too.”

“Then if we switch again during gym-” Harriet began,

“You can take my Spanish and we’ll finish back where we started with you taking your own art and me redoing physics,” Hadrian agreed with a grin. 

“Brilliant,” Harriet rolled off their bed, plucking up both marked up schedules and tossing them in the trash as she went. Hadrian finished up marking his planner and then added the final touches to Harriet’s too. The only real difference between the two were the colours Hadrian used to mark everything, and Harriet appreciated it. Hadrian was always so much better at scheduling and small tasks than she was. 

“Don’t forget we’re riding the bikes today,” Harriet added as she pulled on a particularly thick pair of jeans: workers jeans instead of anything purposefully fashionable. 

“Everyone else is going in a car?” Hadrian asked, slipping out of bed himself and handing Harriet her planner before beginning to change. 

“I think George is driving them,” Harriet replied, yanking on boots without untying the laces even though she knew full well it would be much easier if she just gave in and untied the damn things. 

“George left the hospital?” Hadrian asked, surprised, although Harriet wasn’t sure why. Neither Narcissa nor Lucius could find it in themselves to drive the children to school, having lost Draco so recently, which meant Tonks and Cedric would be staying behind for comfort and Remus was still slowly healing so that knocked out him, Severus, and Sirius. Which rather left George, besides, everyone agreed that it was a good thing for him to leave his brother’s side. He hadn’t left Fred’s side for more than an hour or two in the three weeks they’d been in Forks and, if Fred had been awake, perhaps it would have been understandable, but it was just unhealthy at this point. 

“So George drops off Luna, Neville, and Ginny-”

“And we come in on the bikes, yes Hadrian we’ve been over this before,” Harriet sighed. 

“Didn’t tell me that George was driving,” Hadrian grumbled, no real bite in his words despite the fact that he was upset. Not knowing exact plans always made Hadrian upset, however, after their big blow up a few days after they’d first arrived, both twins had been fairly relaxed. Most of their wounds were healed as well, the only evidence that they’d fought the bandages wrapped around Harriet’s arms and the foundation Hadrian wore on his face and neck to cover up his bruises. Everything else was hidden safely under clothing and wouldn’t be seen by anyone, not even the rest of their family. 

“Didn’t find out myself till last night,” Harriet replied, grabbing her backpack and Hadrian’s satchel and heading towards the door. 

“It might help your sleep if you actually stayed in bed,” Hadrian sighed, grabbing his satchel from Harriet and following her out the door. He knew full well that just staying in bed wouldn’t actually make Harriet fall asleep, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. Even dreamless sleep only helped so much and, since it was addictive, it wasn’t any kind of long term solution. 

“Might as well do something useful since I don’t sleep in the first place,” Harriet replied, letting her brother walk down the stairs ahead of her, just in case she wasn’t able to make it all the way down without falling. Most people wouldn’t notice her limp, she was very careful to make sure of that, but that didn’t mean it didn’t affect her at all. Going up and down stairs was her biggest issue, but running or walking for long distance also hurt. The time they’d spent out in the woods constantly running had only exacerbated the issue, but Harriet wasn’t willing to pull anyone away from the really injured people to help her out. 

“Try learning science of some kind then,” Hadrian offered hopping down the last few steps of the stairs and turning to wait for his sister. She hated asking for help, just as much as he hated asking for help with writing or using scissors, but over the years they’d found a good balance between what help was always expected or in the wings and what had to be actually asked for before it was offered. Stairs were a place where Hadrian was always silently offering help, just like when Harriet would place a second quill and parchment next to hers and if Hadrian’s hands weren’t hurting too much, or he was just being particularly stubborn, he could attempt to use the quill on his own but if he wasn’t he’d just leave it and she’d write what he dictated for him. 

“I’ll learn science the day you willingly pick up a history book,” Harriet replied, using Hadrian’s shoulder to help her keep balance on the last two steps. 

“I’ve read history books before,” Hadrian argued, snatching his satchel from Harriet and slinging it over his head. 

“Yeah, when we had to in order to win a war,” Harriet led the way to the kitchen where they could already hear Neville talking, presumably with Ginny and Luna but neither of them were rather talkative anymore. Somehow, Neville had become the cheerful one and he seemed to take his job rather seriously. 

“Semantics,” Hadrian replied, waving away the fact that such a semantic was the very point of what Harriet was saying. 

Harriet let the subject drop with a roll of her eyes as they entered the kitchen, garnering a cheery greeting from Neville and calmer waves from Ginny and Luna. “Wotcher,” they offered, slipping into open seats and grabbing up some pastries for breakfast. There had probably been a full breakfast earlier, definitely had been if the dishes doing themselves in the sink were any indication, but Harry had spent too much time up in their room and missed out on it. That was alright though, pastries would be enough to tide them over until lunch. 

“You’re both wearing the same outfit,” Ginny noted, suspicion in her voice. Which was fairly rude because Harry never called her out when she was doing something sneaky so really why was she questioning them?

“Indeed,” Harriet replied, munching on her muffin without concern.

“Weird how that happens sometimes,” Hadrian agreed, unable to hide the slightly bubbly energy in him. He was feeling an uncomfortable mix of excitement and fear about attending an actual school of muggles. He hadn’t done that since before he was eleven and even then he never interacted with anyone. 

“Just don’t ruin anything,” Ginny sighed, blatantly stealing one of Hadrian’s muffins even though there were still plenty in the middle of the table. 

“They’d never ruin anything!” Neville defended, eyes narrowed in warning at Harry who adopted an innocent expression. “Besides, Cedric might actually kill you both if you do anything wrong. He’s busy with Lucius for the most part but he did warn that if he had to go to the school for any reason or we did anything to upset Lucius we’d never leave the house again.”

“Just don’t get in trouble together, and you’ll never be trapped,” Luna offered, eyes locked unerringly on Harriet who stopped blinking and proceeded to stare back. 

“Or we kill Cedric,” Ginny offered to Neville’s apparent, and wholly feigned, horror.

“Fuck him up,” Harriet agreed in a bland voice, still staring Luna down. Luna, however, seemed more interested in something only she could see deep in Harriet’s eyes and it would have been uncomfortable if it wasn’t so common. Luna and Harriet got on like a house on fire, but in the strangest ways.

“I thought that was Lucius’ job,” George commented, his voice making a poor attempt at its old levity. 

“George!” Neville cried, jumping up and throwing himself at the far too skinny man. While Harry had been on the run, the Weasley twins and Neville had formed a close bond, one close enough that it often had questionable rumours spreading around about what the three of them got up to alone. Whatever the truth, one that no one cared too much about, Neville had obviously missed George greatly and George seemed far more pleased to see Neville than anyone else in the kitchen. 

“Merlin’s beard Neville, what did you do gain two stone more of muscle?” George joked, pulling Neville in close and burying his head in Neville’s hair for just a moment. 

“Or you dropped two stone of everything,” Harriet offered after Luna finally turned her attention back to Ginny. Hadrian kicked her under the table; he’d been thinking the same thing but at least he hadn’t said it. Harriet just raised an eyebrow at Hadrian; she’d only said it because he hadn’t. Usually, she didn’t care about other people’s health, or at least didn’t notice it.

“Been a bit busy,” George replied, weary sounding but at least he knew there was a problem. 

“I made you an extra lunch,” Neville offered, finally leaving George’s arms to grab a previously ignored grocery bag on the counter stuffed full of food. 

“Did you make us something?” Hadrian asked, turning wide and hopeful eyes on Neville. 

“Nope,” Neville replied, popping the p and smiling happily about it. “I asked you last night what you wanted to eat and you gave me increasingly unhelpful answers so you get to eat school lunch. You’re welcome.”

“So after we kill Cedric we have to kill Neville,” Harriet sighed, “so much work.”

“Which you won’t be able to do if Narcissa and Tonks kill you first for missing school,” George broke in before it could become an argument which wasn’t highly likely but wasn’t impossible either. “So let’s go kiddies, everyone in the monstrosity.”

“I hate when-”

“When people curb your arseholery yes we know,” Hadrian interrupted Harriet impatiently as the others filled out of the kitchen and to the car. 

“When people interrupt me in general was what I was going to say,” Harriet replied, tossing a muffin in the air and catching it with one hand. “You’re the one that’s usually the arsehole.”

“Because your thoughts are too dark to share and one of us-”

“Has to be the goody two shoes useless panderer-”

“Someone who actually cares about-”

“What people think of us instead of anything useful like-”

“Oh I don’t know maybe how our family is feeling and whether or not they’re actively killing themselves instead of-”

“Which won’t matter if someone else kills them first!” Harriet snapped, shoving her chair backwards and towering over Hadrian. 

“There’s no one here to kill them!” Hadrian snapped back, lips peeling back like a snarling animal. “We’re not at war right now so learn to sit down and shut up! If you’d just let me handle things we wouldn’t have these problems.”

“I only said what you were thinking,” Harriet sneered, but she sat back down, silently conceding to the point that her place tended to be in war and it was Hadrian who understood people better. 

“I hate it when people think I’m trying to start a fight too,” Hadrian offered as his own peace branch. 

“Sometimes I wonder-” Harriet began, slumping a bit on her chair.

“If they think all we are good for is fighting?” Hadrian offered, picking at a donut. 

“Everyone’s got someone but us,” Harriet agreed and Hadrian found himself unable to argue. It wasn’t about having a lover perse, more about how everyone was someone’s top priority except for them. They were alone without Ron or Hermione, and they always would be now. 

“Wanna make a statement?” Hadrian offered, standing up and throwing out his torn-up donut along with the empty muffin wrappers he and Harriet had created. 

“Something a little dangerous and a little fun?” Harriet questioned, lips spreading wide in a grin. 

“Nothing too bad, but let’s make a splash. It’s a new day and a new life.” Harriet laughed, leaping over her chair to tug her brother into a hard hug, pausing briefly before she touched him so he could nod and show he didn’t mind the hug. 

“It sounds like a leather jacket kind of day,” Harriet said, pulling away and leading her brother to the front hall, scanning the impossibly long rack of jackets, coats, and cloaks. 

Hadrian found the jackets first, slipping his on and handing the other to Harriet. It felt almost like slipping on their war cloaks. The leather jackets were their own kind of armor, except this one was mental and emotional instead of physical. Next were the leather boots, snug and comfortable and easy to run long distances in. They were actually made of dragonhide, but that wasn’t very easy to tell. 

“Armour on and self preservation gone, I think we’re ready,” Harriet stated grabbing her keys from the bowl of keys they kept near the door. 

“Time to fuck shit up!” Hadrian cried, pumping a fist in the air and adopting his best American accent. Harriet nodded, time to fuck shit up indeed.


End file.
